CHARDON, Ohio — T.J. Lane will be charged as an adult in the slayings of three students at Chardon High School, a Geauga County judge ruled Thursday.

Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Grendell's decision means Lane, 17, could be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted in Common Pleas Court for the Feb. 27 shootings. Geauga County Prosecutor David Joyce said after the hearing that he will present the case to a grand jury in about a week.

Grendell's order came after about an hour of testimony from police officers.

Grendell also allowed a video of the shooting to be played, but he closed his courtroom and prevented reporters and photographers from seeing it.

The judge said public access to the video "could endanger the fairness" of the proceedings and would outweigh any benefit that could come from the public seeing it. He placed a copy of the video under seal.

Joyce called the video "disturbing and graphic." It came from a camera in the school's cafeteria and captured the slayings of Demetrius Hewlin, 16; Russell King Jr., 17; and Daniel Parmertor, 16.

The hearing included testimony from Sheriff's Deputy Jon Bilicic, who arrested Lane shortly after the shootings on the side of Woodin Road, about a mile from the school.

Bilicic testified that he found Lane wearing a shirt with the word "Killer" on it. A gun and a knife were found nearby. He read Lane his rights and began speaking with him as he drove to the sheriff's office.

Bilicic said Lane told him he had just "killed a bunch of people." When Bilicic asked him why, he said, "I don't know." At another point when asked why, he said, "I don't really understand myself," according to Bilicic.

The deputy asked whether Lane was having a problem, and the youth said no. He asked whether Lane was taking drugs or alcohol, and the youth again said no. Bilicic also asked whether Lane was depressed or thinking of suicide. Lane rejected those notions.

The officer asked whether anyone had upset him or picked on him. Lane said neither of those was the case, either.

"No," the deputy quoted the teen as saying. "I have no problems with people. They don't even talk to me." Lane also added: "I don't get angry."

He told the deputy that he had been thinking of the shootings for a while, possibly as long as four weeks. He said he obtained the gun from an uncle's home the night before.

"I don't know why I did this," the youth told the deputy. Bilicic testified that Lane said he shot the victims in the head because he "didn't want them to suffer."

Lane's attorneys, Ian Friedman and Mark DeVan, acknowledged the seriousness of the shootings but urged Grendell to keep Lane's case in Juvenile Court, where Lane could get treatment for his mental illnesses.

Friedman said Lane suffered from a "serious mental impairment." The attorneys also questioned whether Lane knowingly and purposefully committed the crime.

"Obviously, this is something of a mental defect," DeVan told Grendell.

Grendell, however, ruled that Lane used the .22-caliber Ruger handgun "in a deliberate and calculated manner" and bound him over as an adult to Common Pleas Court.

DeVan argued that Lane should be released on a $500,000 bond, secured through the property of his family. He said Lane could begin to receive the treatment he needs and remain on house arrest and electronic monitoring.

Joyce, however, pushed to have Lane held without bond, and Grendell agreed, citing "the substantial risk of danger and physical harm" he posed to the community.

The ruling comes about four months before Lane turns 18. It follows a hearing earlier this month that may have foreshadowed the youth's defense as an adult.

Dr. Phillip Resnick, professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, testified at the earlier hearing that Lane suffers from serious mental problems, including auditory hallucinations, depression and involuntary fantasies and an unspecified psychosis that included symptoms of schizophrenia.

Lane had been charged with six counts of delinquency in the Feb. 27 shootings: three by way of aggravated murder, two by way of attempted murder and one by way of felonious assault. He is being held in a juvenile detention center, and he could be transferred to the County Jail in a matter of weeks.

A police report shows that Lane admitted to firing 10 shots, killing Demetrius, Russell and Daniel. Two other students were shot. Joy Rickers was treated for her wounds and eventually released from the hospital, while Nick Walczak is undergoing rehabilitation for his wounds. A sixth student, Nate Mueller, was grazed on an ear by a bullet.

Lane lived with his grandparents, Jack and Carole Nolan, in Munson Township. He attended Lake Academy in Willoughby, an alternative school. The bus that took him there leaves from Chardon High School each morning.

Members of the victims' families sat in the jury box and watched the hearings. A few stared intensely when Lane walked into the courtroom wearing a button-down shirt and khaki pants. Others held hands throughout the hearing. When it was over, a woman hugged Joyce and slowly walked away.

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